Name that personality!

[1hope]

Has anybody ever heard the saying "If you give a dog a good name, he'll try to live up to it?" I didn't until a few years back. I also heard that an animals personality is influenced by the name given it. Now, how the animal know what the names means, they didn't say. I guess it's got a lot to do with the way you pronounce the name. If somebody named their cat Dumb Dumb, I suppose they would pronounce the name in a belittling tone. (I'm guessing at this part.) Huh, If I'd only know that almost 9 years ago. I had 2 names I was trying to chose between with my dog. I picked Commander....unfortunately he does try to live up to it...should have gone with John Boy.
We found a kitten a couple of years ago and kept it until we could find somebody to take good care of it. I picked out the name Nuisance....real good thing we didn't keep it!

 

[IvoryRain]

Uh oh! Tell that to my foster pup named 'Possum!

 

[Job24]

well I named my dog Princess and she is certainly living up to it...she is a spoiled little brat. but she is my little girl (at least right now) so I love her......

 

[PegasusOnFire]

My sister has a male cat that she named Sassy, and boy is he ever. We have an 18 year old female that we named Tiger, man is she nasty.

 

[27D4]

Our dog Dusty tends to get dirty.

 

[HeatherJay]

Has anybody ever heard the saying "If you give a dog a good name, he'll try to live up to it?" I didn't until a few years back. I also heard that an animals personality is influenced by the name given it. Now, how the animal know what the names means, they didn't say. I guess it's got a lot to do with the way you pronounce the name. If somebody named their cat Dumb Dumb, I suppose they would pronounce the name in a belittling tone. (I'm guessing at this part.) Huh, If I'd only know that almost 9 years ago. I had 2 names I was trying to chose between with my dog. I picked Commander....unfortunately he does try to live up to it...should have gone with John Boy.
We found a kitten a couple of years ago and kept it until we could find somebody to take good care of it. I picked out the name Nuisance....real good thing we didn't keep it!

A few years back when we were picking out names for our first daughter, I had this baby name book that was based on this same principle that you're talking about. I can't think of the name of the book, but according to the author, it all has to do with resonance. The rhythms and tones that connect with a certain part of our subconcsious, or something like that. And when a child (or animal, I suppose) hears a particular resonance repetitively and begins to associate that name with itself, then it takes on the characteristics associated with those resonances. Of course this sounds pretty hokey, and there's probably not much science to back it up. I got the feeling that the book was written based more on the statistics associated with certain names in well known positions instead of any science done on the power of resonance. We named our little one Emily based more onthe fact that we liked it than on the fact that it's a name associated with leadership. But, anyway, back on topic, I suppose some might use the same theory with animal names. But I would guess it's more likely that people name their pets based on previously observed behaviors instead of the animal taking on a particular behavior after it's name is given.

Love, Heather